Taken

Chapter 10: Silver's Explanation

I was stunned. He was the one who had painted a figurative target on my back?! If it wasn't for him, I'd be in college right now! I'd still have my friends and my family! Because of him, I was a damn over-sized wolf in a facility that manufactured mythical creatures for the highest bidder instead. I was no longer trying to hide my Humanity from this man. I could just kill him right after he tells me why the fuck I'm here.

"YOU!" I mentally screamed at him as the wisp of teal fire re-ignited over my head.

Of course, he was unable to hear my mental tirade, but my visible reaction oddly enough didn't phase him. He just opened his eyes and looked at me with a sad smile.

"A mere animal wouldn't respond like that." He chuckled sadly. "There's still some Humanity left in that body of yours. Though, I'm surprised you managed to hide it for this long. Clever girl."

The low rumbling that had been deep in my chest was now a full-fledged, open-mouthed snarl and my twin tails were wagging stiffly behind me. The fact that my ears were pinned flat against my skull further communicated how upset I was.

"I suppose that I deserve whatever you're going to do to me." Silver said. "But first, hear me out, okay? You deserve an explanation."

"DAMN RIGHT I DO!"

I took several deep breaths and forced myself to calm down in the name of conserving energy. When I was still Human, being angry and upset wore me out pretty fast and left me mentally and physically exhausted. For now, I managed to force myself to calm down enough so that the flame over my head had burned out. I lowered my stomach to the hay and rested my head on top of my forepaws. My ears were rotated towards Silver to show him that I was listening. I could hear Alasdair whispering words of comfort over our link, but I dismissed them with a single flick of one of my tails. Silver's words were the only thing that mattered to me right now.

"We are tasked with finding the smartest, most athletic, or the most artistic individuals that Humanity has to offer."

That was something that I learned during my first day here; but of course, Silver had no way of knowing that. To him, I was scared, angry, and confused in regards as to where I was and why I was here.

"Boss divides us into branches and assigns us to various regions worldwide. In the U.S.- where we are now- the regions are Southeast, Northeast, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific." Silver told me. "We scan all high school and college records within our assigned region and run them through a computer that is programmed to automatically filter out anything that's below a 3.0 GPA. Those are then scanned again for extracurriculars; sports, hobbies, and the like, as well as any awards that they might've won for said hobbies, academics, or sports. From there, we debate on who we should target and who we should leave alone, which is a process that can take up to a year."

He paused to look over at me before he continued.

"Once we have a target chosen, we dig up all of the important information on them; their home address, birth certificate, family tree, any genetic tests that have been done, medical records, and any police reports that they might have. We then track the target via satellite, private investigators, and phone records extensively until an opportunity to take the individual presents itself. We've also adopted kids from orphanages and used them, but they didn't survive the metaforming process if they were younger than sixteen. Sometimes, we sedated the target with a heavily chloroform-soaked rag, other times it's with a powerful intravenous sedative. But I digress from the original topic at hand."

Silver shook his head.

"I was working in the Southeast sector when I came across your high school transcript. A then Sophomore who had made Headmaster's List her Freshman year. We all agreed to watch you further to see where life would take you; physically and academically speaking."